Finally!! The long-awaited SA first Dance film “Hear Me Move” is making a debut in local cinemas from today, Friday , 27 Feb.
“Hear Me Move” features Nyaniso Dzedze as Muzi, Mbuso Kgarebe as the antagonist Prince and Bontle Modiselle as Khanyi. Other principal cast members include Lillian Dube in the role of Gogo, Wandile Molebatsi as Thami, Makhaola Ndebele as Shoes and Sthandiwe Kgoroge as Lerato. Thembi Seete, Trevor Gumbi, Lorcia Cooper, Amanda Du Pont, Boity Thulo, Alfred Ntombela and Khanyi Mbau have cameo roles in the movie.
The film incorporates many local forms of dance, of which sbujwa is the most prominent in the movie. “Sbujwa is about where we are now, where our youth is now. It originates from the dance form pantsula or, in other words, where we come from,” says Namisi.
Comments Smith: “We don’t exclude other dance forms because the movie opens with a hip hop sequence, and we incorporate pantsula and contemporary dance. Sbujwa originated in the late 1990s and early noughties, encompassing various dance forms such as pantsula but infused with house beats.”
In the movie, sbujwa frames a narrative around this dance form that is inherently South African. Smith continues: “Twenty years after democracy, young people are able to express themselves through this dance movement. Dance as a subculture is huge in our townships, other urban areas and even here in downtown Johannesburg.”
